Game apparatus.



No. 700,856. Patented May 27, I902.

W. 0. TALCUTT.

GAME APPARATUS.

(Application filed Nov. 2, 1901.)

(No Model.)

WITNEEEEE:

INVENTEIR'.

WALTER 0.TALCOTTI UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WALTER O. TALCOTT, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

GAME APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 700,856, dated May 27, 1902.

Application filed November 2, 1901. Serial No. 80,888. (No model.)

To all whmn it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WALTER O. TALCOTT, a

citizen of the United States of America, and

a resident of Providence, in the county of Providence and State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Puzzles, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates to improvements in puzzles; and it consists, essentially, of a square glass-covered box having the upper side of its base or board provided with a series of suitably-arranged depressions or stations and a disk or counter adapted to be moved or hopped about in the box by the player, all as hereinafter set forth and claimed.

The object I have in view is to provide a small and inexpensive puzzle adapted to be held in and manipulated by the hands of the player. The device, although being simple and easily worked, calls for the exercise of a certain degree of skill and judgment in order to win the game with the fewest number of hops or strokes. I may add that the puzzle or game possesses in miniature some of the characteristic features of the well-known game of golf, one point of difference being that in the latter case the movements of the ball are effected by impact with the stick wielded by the player, whereas in the present or miniature device the movements of the disk (used in lieu of a ball) are accomplished by quickly moving the box in a peculiar man-.

ner, thereby causing the disk to jump or hop about on the surface of the board, the object of the player being to so manipulate the box that the disk will enter or cover the several depressions or stations successively in a predetermined order and with the fewest number of hops or strokes.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan or top View representing my improved puzzle, and Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view takenvon line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

A, again referring to the drawings, designates the puzzle as a whole, the same comprising the base or board a, the upturned sides I), extending around and circumscribing the base, and the non-removable transparent top or glass cover 0. The said base aand its sides b are or maybe integral and formed from suitable fiat cardboard, portions of the stock being first cut away, thus forming the blank. The parts contiguous to the base may be creased or incised, thereby adapting them to be readily bent upwardly at right angles to the base to form the said sides I) in a manner well known to paper-box manufacturers. The corners of the box may be reinforced and the entire surface of the box or case covered with suitable paper pasted thereto, as common.

The upper or playing surface of the base a is, as drawn, provided with a series of ten symmetrically-arranged stations or depressions d,

7, 8, and 9 and including a startingpoint or station 5. These are located near the outeredge of the base and are substantially equidistant from the center of the box, the arrangement of the said numbers being such that in order to cover them successively the disk f must in any case pass across the center or median line. This latter may consist of the representation of a bunker e. The several stations d may be produced by a suit able die or plunger having on its face a corresponding number of button-shaped members, thereby adapting the die to simultaneously impress into the base a at one operation the depressions l, forming the stations. If desired, the board or base may be previously passed through a suitable printing-press, thereby printing upon the flat playing-surface letters or words or representations of grass, trees, dtc.

Across the top of the box is secured a glass cover 0, thereby forming an inclosed chain ber. In this chamber is contained the small movable playing-disk f, of metal, adapted to be moved about therein when the puzzle or apparatus is manipulated by the player.

The following is a description of the man ner of playing the game: Hold the box or apparatus A substantially level by one corner with the right hand and then by manipulating the box toss or slide the-disk f onto the starting square or station 3, and then by one or more hops of the disk the latter is gotten onto the station marked 1, meanwhile crossing the imaginary bunker or center line c. From station 1 the disk is hopped to station 2, and so on successively to each of the remaining stations, the disk finally resting in station 9. The player who can make-the disk enter the nine stations with the least number of hops or movements wins the game. It desired, each station may be played for separately. Theplayer who gets the disk into the station in the fewest hops wins that station, and the player who wins the most stations wins the game. In competitii e playing each player may use his own board,

if desired.

Certain rules are obviously necessary to be followed in playing the game, but I do not deem them essential to this specification.

I am well aware that various kinds of puzzles or parlor-game apparatus have been devised prior to my present invention,'in some of which a ball or member is employed-as, for example, the well-known game or puzzle Pigs in Clover.

such apparatus broadly.

Therefore I do not claim I What I do claim, and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent, is I The glass-covered puzzle A herein described, the same comprising the square base a provided with a center or median line e and having a series'of stations d located equidistantly from the center of the base and arranged around the outer edge thereof, and further having the stations arranged with respect to said center line whereby the latter equally divides the series of stations, and a movable disk f adapted to enter or cover the said stations upon properly manipulating the box, substantially as described.

. Signed at Providence, Rhode Island, this 31st day of October, 1901.

WALTER O. TALCOTT. WVitnesses:

GEO. H. REMINGTON, CHAS. P. DAY. 

